America has decided.
It is Donald Trump to rule the United States of America for the next 4 years. The
presidential election has turned into
something we have never seen before in US history. The result caught most
of the people off-guard. Roots of a deeply divided and insecure society emerge
beneath the tolerant and progressive ‘super-democracy’ which everyone expects the
USA to be. Are people being delusional or
have they forgotten to understand the underlying forces of human nature when
they are at crossroads.
The main factor
As there are many
reasons why Donald Trump has won by a
significant margin, in my opinion, the main factor should be that Trump being
able to address the insecurities in the minds of the majority of American
People, the white, middle and working-class ordinary Americans. The
insecurities being threefold; national security being compromised, collapsing
economy and employment related issues and finally the shattering of the
so-called ‘American way of life’. The latter can be described as a shift in demography, cultural norms, and national values. Even though some of
these issues are prevailing and pose an immediate threat, the others have
little to no real effects. For example, issues such as demographic shifts and
cultural norms being undervalued have no immediate effects to the USA as immigration has in Europe.
Trump has triumphantly
exploited those insecurities of the majority. The analysis of the opinion polls
has suggested that while the Asian, Hispanic and African Americans have loathed
Trump, the majority of white Americans vouched for him. Trump appealed for the
working class, to secure their employment. He also appealed for the general
public to strengthen the national security and stopping the adverse effects of
immigration. The means of doing that was outrageous and sometimes dangerous and
hilarious and terrifying at the same time. The border wall to keep the Mexicans
out of USA and banning immigration from certain countries categorized by him as
‘Muslim’ are few of his ‘brilliant’ solutions to the above problems. There are
some progressive factors like tax reforms and infrastructure development and
creating job opportunities. However, his election campaign is dominated by
ISIS, Mexico, and Iran, the things which ordinary American fears and being insecure
about.
American election has
many similarities to the Brexit vote held in June this year. Both had the similar characteristic of the belligerents are
the same. Both have similar issues such as national security, weakening the national
economy and immigration and the outcome and winners have the similar qualities.
Not to mention the ‘bromance’ between Trump and the alleged winner of the
Brexit, Nigel Farage which made Farage openly supporting Trump; by even
speaking at a Trump rally.
The outcomes of Brexit
and US Election have made two realizations; one is that even a supposed liberal
society has deep rooted traditionalist ‘non-progressive’ values and they will
play a huge part in making decisions and the second and the most importance one
is that it is always important to look at the growing fears and expectations of
the silenced majority. In this case the, insecurities of the ordinary American
psyche. It is not that Trump’s rival Hillary would do anything that undermines
the national security and putting the economy in a downward spiral and Hillary
being the president doesn’t make the life easier for Blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims in the USA but the outcome of this election is the
result of Trump being successfully manipulating the insecurities while Hillary
failing to address them properly and getting the confidence of the majority. It
is not the fact that Trump is better but that Hillary is worse that made
America opt for Trump.
Has Obama
contributed to this?
Some blame President
Obama for making the republicans weak and making Hillary’s defeat at the
election. But in my opinion, Obama is a better president than anyone who was
nominated and ran for this year’s election. Given the history and politics of
USA, it was a bold and progressive move that American people have endorsed a
candidate like Obama. He came to power in a crisis period, the Debt crisis had weakened
the USA and economy haven't seen a catastrophe of this magnitude
since the Great Depression in the 1930s
not to mention the international criticism for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the sheer desire
for a change that made Americans choose
Obama over John McCain.
Obama either succeeded
delivering the change he promised or he was damn lucky for the passing of the
adverse effects of the 2008 crisis. The crisis slowed, companies stayed afloat and
the country survived if not thrived. Troops have pulled out from Iraq and
Afghanistan. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA the Obamacare) was
another progressive step taken by Obama even though it was criticized
heavily. It was the fact that ‘The GM
was alive and Osama Bin Laden was dead’ made Obama win his second term. That
means the recovery of the economy,
pulling troops out and killing Osama had generally elevated him to one of the
best presidents the US ever had.
Events that unfolded
in his second term made some effect in the power swing from Democrat to a
Republican in this election. The rise of
ISIS which depicted the flows of US foreign policy, unemployment or under-employment
in among Americans, racism and most importantly recent
attacks by radicalized home-grown terrorists have made his leadership weak and
questionable which in-turn become the Achilles heel of Hillary Clinton. In my
opinion, the USA was in a better position economically than when Obama took over in 2008 and he reversed some, not all
of the damage that George Bush had done. If Obama could and had run for the
third term, I believe that he could and should have won as he is better than
Hillary, Trump and certainly Bush.
Shattering expectation
of the USA being progressive?
Is the USA a progressive and liberal society? The
answer would be a Yes and a No. It depends on how we define progressiveness. We
are expecting too much from the USA, wanting it to become an example for all of
us who strive for a liberal utopia. Sorry to have hurt your feelings
fellas! But you have to realize that as every country is a depiction of its
society and the American society is not as progressive and liberal as you want
it to be. It has the deep-rooted
conservatism (at least among the majority of the people) to be portrayed making
political choices. We tend to look at the mainstream media and a few of the progressives
and liberals and assume that the common
American had the same values the minority is portraying but it is not the
reality. Even though the USA is a
multicultural society and has values of religious freedom, when it comes to
national security, economy, and
employment, nothing was allowed to compromise it.
Was democracy to blame
in the first place?
Now some people also
have speculations about the USA being a
democratic society. It also depends on
how we portray how democracy should be. The reality is so much different and
unsettling. The foundation of democracy is the will of the majority. As long as
that will of the people is accurately presented (in US election, there are
speculation of that have really happened because of the Electoral College system
begin criticized for not displaying the will of the people) their choice should
be the valid choice regardless of how hard to swallow it and come to terms with
it for the rest of the world.
The next lesson of
democracy to learn is that the unpredictability of human nature and the fact
that it can be changed. Both in Brexit vote and US election, the opinion polls
predicted the opposite result in huge margins. Regardless of how strong the
democratic institutions are we should realize
that as a chain is as strong as its weakest link, the democracy is totally
depending on the unpredictable and manipulative human consciousness. It is the
political force which understands and makes most of it goes for the win.
What would to future be
like for the USA and for the world?
When Barack Obama becomes
the president in 2008, the world had expected miraculous utopia from him. Some even hope for a better future
not only for African-Americans but for the whole
society. He couldn’t deliver any of it except the relative economic stability.
America is still hated by the millions of people; African-American youth are
getting shot by the police by the dozens, American still live in fear of ISIS
attacks.
We should not expect
anything drastic from Trump also. It will not be surprising that Trump if
struggles to stop the influx of migrants from Mexico, to crush ISIS to the
ground or to make the American dream a reality again. The people who opted for
Hillary especially minorities should not be worried of a prosecution as well as
all the presidents did, Trump will not stick to
his plans for sure. What we can expect is the political stability as
Republicans have both the senate and House of Representatives. There may be
minor house-keeping jobs such as infrastructure projects and job creations and
a few legislations. Internationally, the status-quo will likely to remain even with someone as charismatic and hectic as
Trump.
Conclusion
Now the election is
over. Still, Obama Has Reins until 2017
January. It is still no time to make a complete prediction of what Trump will
become. However, this election has given some important life lessons for
everyone and helped to realize the human nature when faced with insecurities. For
all the liberals and so-called progressives,
there is some soul searching to left to do. They expect too much from the USA
and try to justify their ideas through
the process called democracy which is made to depict the ideas of the majority.
They should realize when their world starts
crumbling beneath their feet that they
are the minority and to never under-estimate the human nature.
(photo courtesy : http://www.mapsofworld.com/)
